Inaugural Lecture: Prof. Laurie Cohen - Imagining careers

Many people take the concept of career for granted. In this lecture Professor Cohen will unpack some everyday assumptions about what careers are and how they happen, and will explain why she finds career a compelling subject for research. She will also highlight key findings from a current study into the careers of women entrepreneurs from 1993 to 2010.

What do you actually research when you research careers? Jobs? Or more appropriately, good jobs? Or jobs that people do for a long time?

Many people take the concept of career for granted, and might assume that a careers researcher works in a careers service, or is behind those internet surveys that match individuals up to (often implausible) occupations.

In this lecture, Professor Cohen will unpack some everyday assumptions about what careers are and how they happen, and will explain why she finds it a compelling subject for research. She will also discuss a current project on women entrepreneurs.

Back in 1993 Professor Cohen conducted in-depth interviews with women who had left their jobs in organizations and set up their own businesses. Seventeen years later she went back to them for follow up interviews. Although movement over time is fundamental to the concept of career, most careers research fails to capture this temporal dimension, instead providing snapshots of people’s experiences at particular, often fleeting moments.

While careers researchers extol the virtues of longitudinal research, in practice it rarely happens. In the lecture Professor Cohen will highlight some of the key findings from her study.

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